6I-My Spot

If you had a private studying spot would you want to tell the entire world wide web about it? It would get too crowded. There aren't many positives to telling someone where you get away from everyone else.  But if you are like me, you may not want to be in a place with a pretty view, or somewhere that you are completely alone. My place to study is at Conn Hall.

http://ascribehq.com/larosa-building-group/portfolio/3568

Most people would think that this is a horrible place to study, but for me it is perfect. Any week day there is a good chance that you will find me sitting alone, with homework strewn across the table in front of me from about nine to eleven in the morning.  Most of the time I will be sitting at one of the tall tables behind the booths.  I like these seats better because if I sit in the seat with my back against the rest of Conn, I am able to block out everyone else. I simply put my headphones in and blast whatever music I feel like listening to.  I  do not know how I am able to do this but I am the most productive while in this spot.  

Although this may not be the same spot that works for you, it is always an option. Everyone's studying habits differ, but if you try different things, you will be able to find out what works for you.

6A- The Climb

When it comes to hardships, we all are facing something.  When reading this weeks assignments I had to decide again how much I want to inform everyone.  It became apparent after a few days what I had no choice what to write about.  

Fears.  Everyone is afraid of something. But what happens when that fear is diagnosed as a phobia. The girl who lives across the hall from me texted me and informed me that she had thrown up Monday morning.  My heart sunk at this information. Ever since I was a child, I have had a fear of getting sick in this way.  I had avoided it at all costs.  Anytime someone I knew would get sick, I would avoid contact with anyone for a week if not more.  Someone got sick in my house, did not walk in that part of my house for two years.  Not until this week did I come to the realization that this was not a fear.  It was a phobia.

I am very vigilant with washing my hands and rarely miss taking vitamins.  I always attempt to get the correct amount of sleep and do everything to avoid this.  That Monday, all I could think about was the possibility of ways that I could have been exposed to the bacteria or virus.  This thought process is what lead me into my week from hell. 

Have you ever convinced yourself that you were sick? So much that you also convinced your body that you were.  Every symptom associated with the sickness rushes over your body at once.  Your throat begins to close up, not allowing you to breathe.  Your whole body begins to shake and you feel as if your worst fear is coming true. Have you ever had it happen more than 10 times in one week?

Neither had I.

In the past week, I have had this exact process happen to me multiple times.  Some during classes, some while trying to fall asleep, some in the middle of the night. When talking to my counselor about it she explained to me that I was having a panic attack.  We worked together in order to find things that would possibly work in order to get me through these attacks. Although there is no way for me to know if any of you have suffered similar anxiety related attacks, and I hope that none of you have, I thought I would explain the things that got me through it.

http://www.medicalook.com/Mental_health/Anxiety.html

• Start taking deep breaths.
• Get a glass of water
• Distract yourself with something that you enjoy(ex. music, socializing, watching television, etc.)
• Assure yourself that you will be okay no matter what happens.
• Talk to someone (ex. counselor, family member, friend)
• Think about the things that make you the happiest.

Although I still struggle with anxiety and panic attacks, I am hoping that I will be able to better control them.  It will not be easy, but with the help of the people who care about me, I hope to improve.  This is something that I have been struggling with for many years, and will most likely still be fighting for years to come.  My only option is to not give up.  I know that in order to overcome this, I will need to face it head on and never let it take over my life. 

5V- Confused Definitions

http://www.snorgtees.com/can-t-touch-this-equation

Many people, including myself had trouble finding the correct definition for the word, agency.  Many common definitions dealt with a group of people established to provide a particular service.  I started writing my blog and finished most of my thought, only to the surprise that it was not the correct usage of the word.  When looking on the blog later in the week, I found out the definition in which we were supposed to use.  "Agency is related to action, power, movement, initiative." Although I could not find any other information with this definition, this closely relates to this weeks articles. 

The focus of this weeks article's, in my perspective, were mostly focused on how not to procrastinate.  By taking agency, students can avoid cramming sessions.  There actions that are thought of ahead of time are very effective.  I have used such agency a few times before when dealing with school work, and plan on working harder in order to make it more of a regular tool. I hope that taking the initiative in my work will make my college experience very positive.

Another word that appeared this week was ambiguity. It arose in my Critical Thinking class. It means a something that has two meanings.  It can make a statement vague because of the two definitions that can be used for the same word.  I was able to apply a word I had heard a few times, into a real life context in this class.

The final word that came up this week was in my Pre-Calculus class.  The word was asymptote.  It came up in class my junior year of high school, but I did not remember the exact definition. When it came up in class this week, I decided to go further into investigation of it.  It is a function that  continually approaches a given curve but does not meet it at any finite distance. I thought that it was very interesting to find out that a function could steadily get closer to an asymptote, but never actually touch it.  You learn things every week!

5I-On My Way To 5K

http://www.5ktrainingschedules.com/?attachment_id=1130

With the homecoming 5k quickly approaching, I figured that I should try to prepare for it.  When I found out that the school was running a free five week program that prepares you for the race, I jumped at the opportunity.  This program started on September 13, and I am now approaching the third group running session.  

Every week we increase the distance that we run by half of a mile.  The first week session consisted of running one and a half miles. After we finished cooling down, we were handed slips of paper with a recommended workout regime for the rest of the week. Seeing that one and a half miles was not extremely hard, I figured that I did not need to follow it.

When I went back for the second group run, I realized that it was much more difficult than I thought it would be.  After experiencing this, I decided to follow the regime more closely for the following week. This Friday, I participated in the third session of the training.  Although two and a half miles was difficult, I felt refreshed and not as tired as I did the previous week. My hard work during the week had paid off. 

  As time progresses the group of people continuing on with the group gets smaller.  We started with approximately 15 people in the first session and are now down to eight.  With only two sessions left to go, I hope that I will be prepared to finish the 5k Homecoming race without stopping once.  The training has definitely helped with this preparation.  I have also met many people who share my love of exercise.  No matter what makes you happy, there are things on campus that you can get involved with.  Go out there and find what interests you!

5B- So Much to Do, So Little Time

http://voices.yahoo.com/cramming-tips-help-survive-all-nighter-468233.html?cat=72
We've all been there, paper due the next day.  You're sitting up at two in the morning, struggling to stay awake.  You know you have no other choice but to stay up and do the paper.  Time management is not something that everyone is just born with.  It is something that you have to work toward.  It has not always been easy, but those late night paper crams make us learn to not get in that situation again.  Some people enter college with these skills of time management, but us less fortunate people might have to learn it now.  

I'll be honest. Up until this very post, I was the person who waited until Saturday to start my posts.  I am the definition of a procrastinator.  I do not feel any inspiration to do work until I know I have no other choice, but to do it. This is one of my biggest flaws, but I'm working on it.  This weeks made me realize that doing things ahead of time, will actually reduce my stress levels. What college student doesn't want that?
This week, since having to record how much time I was spending doing each activity, I felt obliged to spend my time wisely.  As odd as it seemed, I was getting in all of my requirements and not feeling overwhelmed.  By budgeting my time, I was able to be more productive. I spent enough time sleeping, doing homework, and also fitting in a good amount of socialization time.  I realized that my strength is in my ability to multitask.  I was able to get my social time in with my work out, my homework in with my eating.  I realized that my old ways of procrastination weren't effective at all.

This is my turning point.  I am hoping I can keep up with this positive attitude toward time management.  I may have slip ups, but I will continue on with trying.  If I start doubting myself, or feeling as if I don't want to continue with these habits, I plan on reflecting back at this blog post to give me inspiration to keep going.

5A- My Roller Coaster Life

"You have twenty-five minutes to finish the quiz, and if your paper isn't in the pile when I collect it, you get a zero." This wasn't exactly the best way to start of a quiz, although my Micro-Economics teacher thought it was.  Seeing that I have testing anxiety, it also didn't help.  Twenty- five minutes flew by, and I finished the last question as the buzzer went off.  I knew I did not get every question correct, but I also didn't think I did horribly.  When I later found out that my final score on that quiz was a 40, I was heartbroken.  My first grade I received in college was a 40? Not exactly the best start to this four year process I was about to begin.  But instead of freaking out and giving up, I knew that I instead just needed to reevaluate.  I needed to see what I did wrong, and make sure that I did not do the same thing again. 

EVOLVE. 

https://www.cmich.edu/ess/studentaffairs/SDS/Pages/10-Habits-10-Traps.aspx

In high school, I was used to studying for an hour or two and grasping the concepts.  This time was different. I knew that I needed to do more than hand in all of the homework and participate in class. I need to go home and review everything I had learned in class and then practice.  Practice was something that everyone is familiar with growing up. "Practice makes perfect." But what if it doesn't make perfect.  They never told you how much you might have to practice just in order to grasp a concept a small amount more than you did originally.  This was a new concept to me. I am still working on this, but I am hoping that when the next quiz is given next week, I am better prepared than I was for the first one.

Thankfully I feel I have done very well in handing in all of the homework that is due.  I never have much trouble making sure that all of the assigned work is in when it needs to be.  My goal is to receive a gpa of higher than a 2.75 in my first semester.  In order to do this I will need to keep up my homework like I have been doing.  My scores in exams and quizzes is hopefully going to increase.  In my other classes, I seem to be getting good grades.  Micro- Economics will be the challenge of my semester.  Since I know that this is my challenge, it will only make it easier for me to improve.

I will become the student that I want to be.  I know that I am capable of achieving everything that I want.  I will not stop until I am happy with my goals.  My advice to you, is to strive for your biggest goals in life.  You may be having trouble in some classes, but if you just step back and realize what you are good at, you will find it easier to do the things you need to improve on. 

YOU CAN DO THIS. 

4V- Word Game

This week when we started talking about delayed gratification, I had known what we were talking about.  This is a topic I had seen many times before, but I had never been so in depth with the meaning of it. Another phrase used to describe this would be self- control.  It is the ability to see that if you wait and stick something out, the rewards will be much greater than an initial reward.  I had never thought about the fact that this was a foreign concept to me growing up, but it was.  It was not something I was familiar with until I started focusing in more on school.

Words that I saw this week that caught my eye were equilibrium and complements.  These are both words that I have seen and used before, but I had never seen them used in the context that I had this week.  I heard both of these words used during my Micro-Economics class.  Equilibrium is the perfect price and quantity of an item should be.  This is decided based on the supply and demand of this product.  It is where both supply and demand meet at an equal point. 

http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics3.asp

The word complement meant something completely different to me before this week. I used them in the instances of two people in a relationship complimenting each other.  In Micro-Economics it means two items that are needed to be used together.  They are commonly bought together.